I just broke my skull
Oops. No time for false alarm
T'was just a rupture

I WOKE UP WITH A START.

Blinding sunlight burned my eyelids, forcing me to keep my eyes closed. My lungs felt like two withered pawpaws. My body was heavy, probably now made up of a dead donkey bones. I figured I was lying spread-eagled - an alternative posture film directors would love suicide actors to position their bodies instead of lying with their heads, elbows and knees bent outward when they fall off skyscrapers.

Or maybe I had also fallen to my death.

The jump, the spin, the rush of water... they had felt terrifyingly real that I was sweating bullets. Pricking up my ears, I discovered the gushing sound that woke me up was still rushing.

I squinted my eyes. Few yards away, Rupert was washing his wound by running tap water through his hair.

Beside my sickbed - which consisted of nothing more than soft tuft and a moss-grown rock for pillow - a hand dabbed my temple with a wad of damp washcloth. The material smelled of a mixture of oregano, anise and green manure.

I was glad it's not peppermint.

Jugding by the searing sensation I was enduring, I have a feeling I must've fractured my skull from falling temple-first earlier.

A cool breeze swept across my body, prickling up my hairs and making my sweat-drenched clothes cold and clammy to my skin. I welcomed the feeling with open arms. (I was still spread-eagled so you can interpret that any way you want).

I tried standing up, a little too fast, only to end up staggering sideward like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I felt woozy as if I just got off from an intense rollercoaster ride. Tiny specks of golden stars danced in my eyes. There was also this queasy feeling building up my chest. I fought back the urge to puke.

"Careful," a female voice held me in a bridal carry, preventing me from falling on my morphological seats of cushion.

I turned my head and... "Lucy!" I heard myself squeak, dislodging myself from her and slouching into Luke's arm behind me.

When had she ever cared to tell me to be careful?

"Are we here?" I asked.

"Yes. We're here." Lucy said.

I took she didn't understand. "Heaven or hell?"

Before Lucy could scowl or think of a noteworthy rebuttal, an old cranky voice that might have survived nine decades called from the direction of an older, crankier cottage. "Rumbelow! Come give a hand... Backbone's so stiff. In the kitchen!"

"Gimme a moment," Rupert turned to us, squeezing water out of his mouse-brown hair. "That's my nice granny - uhmm - I mean mom. She can sniff me out of any hole. Motherly connection, she claims." He dipped his finger into a bowl filled with salve and rubbed it on his shrinking lump.

"Does she know we're here?" My eyes could barely open.

"Yes and no." Rupert left me more confused as he left.

Lucy signalled Luke in some military sign language that was meant to be surreptitious. Grinning, he gently placed me down to my bed of squishy grass.

Twins, ah. What are they up to this time? I chose not to care.

I turned my head away from them and took in my surroundings. So we're already at the Wood's not hell, thank Hades. (Eww. A personal, hot pun.)

The area was roughly the size of six lawn tennis courts put together and was fenced all round by trellises shaded with all kinds of vines. Also, there were innumerable species of other unidentifiable plants growing across the area.

Simply put, it was a place after Demeter's and Dionysus' heart. Demeter is the Greek goddess of the fertility of Earth, harvest and more, by the way. I have nothing to say about that intoxicated god of wine, vines and theatrical vibes, however.

To my far north, a one-stream marble statuette fountain I believed had not been in service for years stood idly close to the gates with its arm spread out, hoping to welcome aliens someday. Behind the Wood's cottage was a ruinous shed. It was an eyesore to look at. I quickly looked away...

...At red admiral butterflies flittering from daisies to hydrangeas in their quests to forage nectar. An upholsterer bee nibbled on a poppy, flew off with the tiny leaf in its mouth, apparently using it to build its cell on some sycamore tree. Dragonflies zinged across waterlogged potholes where daddy longlegs perched weightlessly on top. The garden vista was an eye-candy.

All in all, it felt so peaceful in my head (The scene, not my fractured skull.) I added into my mental bucket list that I'll always study this beautiful sight from afar in the school bus. That's if I'll ever set a foot in that mobile prison again.

Lucy dipped her potion finger into the bowl filled with salve, exchanging a conspiratorial glance with Luke.

Without warning, Luke pounced on me like a vicious bobcat, pinning my hands down my sides. The blades of grass suddenly felt like thorns against my skin.

I reacted as any other person would - thrashing and kicking of course, like a convulsionist. I was too weak for both of them because Lucy also kneedropped into my chest on cue.

"Ow... My ribs."

"They won't break, just keep still and stop fighting."

"And you do what?"

Both twins exchanged glances again. They guffawed evilness from the depths of their guts.

For a jarring splitsecond, I thought the twins were about to murder me. Think all you want, I've got an extreme sense of dark humor, yes, but I've seen a lots of gloomy betrayal movies and they didn't bring light to my face.

My saving grace? I remembered I wasn't important. If I died, I've got almost nothing to lose. I gave up the fight, closing my eyes for the nigh moment. (I was expecting Lucy to stab my eyes with a ballpoint pen.)

Instead, she rubbed her salved finger in curlicues around my temple, applying pressure and harmless tickles on the region from time to time. What next?

First off, I screamed. The balm stung more than Poseidon's Trident. My stomach twinged like it were a compressed tube of body lotion, threatening to spill out my entrails. Was Zeus defibrillating my stomach with his Lightning Bolt? The gods must be crazy!

I made a mental note that if I ever survive this life-or-death experience, I'll give all Carringtons I know a wide berth. Lucy and Luke Carringtons especially. There are so mean in positive ways.

My eyeballs rolled upward. My eyelids closed down due to fatigue. Luckily, I suffered an instant blackout hoping I'd wake into a paradise world when I came to.

☬☬☬

Don't Forget To VOTE, Reeders ☬

I really had a blast while writing this. You?